The Basketball Game: A Graphic Novel

The backdrop for The Basketball Game is the story from the 1980s and 1990s of Jim Keegstra, an anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying teacher from Alberta who eventually went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada unsuccessfully trying to defend his hate crimes as freedom of expression. Unfortunately, before he was relieved of his duties as a teacher, over several years he had exposed many students to his lies and twisted stories about Jewish people and the Holocaust.

The book, a memoir, tells the author’s story of being a young Jewish boy at summer camp when the camp’s director invited some of Keegstra’s students to visit for a day, with one of the activities being a basketball game between the campers and the students. Unwittingly, Hart has volunteered to play in the game, but, when he finds out who the opponents will be, he is mortified, and, with the encouragement of his fellow campers, he begins to build up terrifying and threatening images of these visiting students. By the time they arrive, Hart’s convinced they may as well be Nazis, white supremacists, and Klansmen who see him and his fellows as all-powerful Jews that control the world.

The game begins. As cleverly illustrated, readers don’t see two teams of children playing basketball; they see cartoonishly drawn visions of a team of “all-powerful Jews” and horned supervillains versus a team of white supremacists and Nazis, the distorted picture each side has of the other. It is not until one of the visiting students says “nice shot” that these inflated, twisted images are deflated, and the children finally start to see each other for who they really are.

The Basketball Game is a graphic novel, based on a short, animated film with the same title produced by the National Film Board of Canada. In some respects, the film is more compelling than the book as, with the use of sound effects, music, and motion, it is able to make more vivid and dynamic the sense of threat each side represents to the other and to convey with humour the moral of the story. On the other hand, the book provides more space and time to delve into more of the specifics of the background and the issues. In addition, the book provides other resources (including a glossary and discussion questions) and context around both Keegstra, Holocaust denial, and how to begin to address fear and prejudice. Perhaps ideally, young readers will watch the movie first and then go back and read the book, allowing the nuances of the story—both the seriousness and the humour—to sink in.

One of the many aspects of The Basketball Game that I especially like is the dominance of the children’s perspective and experience. It is from this approach that the drawings transform from black and white ink panels of the characters interacting to full colour monster comic book art depicting the outlandish and comical figures their imaginations have created.

The publisher suggests The Basketball Game is intended for readers ages 12 and up. That recommendation appears to be because it contains specific anti-Semitic language and ethnic stereotypes. The language level and style of the book, however, are suitable for more sophisticated younger readers (say, ages 8 and up). I understand the publisher’s concerns, yet I would like to trust that younger readers can see that the author makes plain what is wrong and right in this story and how it is intended to be read.